Kitchen Remodel – 2

The big day arrives. We thought we might try to do at least some of the demolition ourselves, but as the time grew closer, we asked our contractor for a quote to have the demo done too. The price was reasonable enough so we gave him the go-ahead. We’re glad we did because as the worked progressed, we realized it would have taken us weeks to get the work done. In the end, it only took the workers about 3 hours to do it, and another hour the next day to haul away all the trash.

We finally got an idea of how our view out the windows would look.

We asked them to try and preserve everything they could so we could donate it to Habitat For Humanity. It turns out that all the original cabinets were custom fit, so none of it could be preserved as salvagable units. They were able to save all the appliances, the “pull-out shelving” from the cupboards and most of the hinge hardware.

When we called Habitat, they said they didn’t want any appliances over 5 years old. I told the lady they were high end models when they were new and that they were in very good shape. She said she would leave it to the driver to decide whether to take them or not. She did want the pull-outs, the hinge hardware, and the counter/sink/faucet combo.

When they guy came, he took all the appliances but said they didn’t have room to store any of the rest of it. Go figure.

As soon as he left, I put the things he didn’t take up on Freecycle. Before I could get the second listing typed up, someone had already responded saying they wanted the pull-outs. Before the day was done, I’ll bet we had 8 or 10 people wanting our stuff. Within 2 days everything was gone and out of here.

After the floor was completely revealed, the men from the cement cutting company came. The cut a cross-shaped trench that got rid of the old plumbing and electrical lines and opened up the area where the new ones would go.

The saw they used to cut the cement had a hose connected to it that wet the dust that kept the dust down to a more or less reasonable level. Even so, we had a fine layer of dust all over the house. When the outline of the trench was finished, thye cut it into sections so it would be easier to lift the pieces out. Each piece was the width of the trench and about a foot long. They guessed that they weighed about 80 pounds per section. They would carry the pieces on a dolly two at a time and toss them into their truck.

With the trench open, the plumber came and started roughing in the new drain and water line.

Then the electricians came and installed the wiring. The plumber came once more and put in the new gas line for the stove and extended the water lines to their final locations. We also had the electricians put in two empty conduits in case we ever wanted to add a phone line, computer network, or some future thingamagig we can’t even anticipate at this time. You can see Karen in the background doing dishes in our teeny tiny sink in the powder room.